WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (Sept. 5, 2008) — The last tires from the formerly mammoth Starr property in Columbia County near Williamsport were loaded up and carted away Sept. 4, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said.
In 1987, the year the state government first moved to stop the accumulation of tires at the site, it held nearly 6 million tires. In June, the DEP gave Entech Inc. a $447,000 grant to process and remove the final 300,000 tires at the site, the agency said.
The DEP reached an agreement with site owners Max and Martha Starr in March 2004 to clean up the tires on the property. The Starrs agreed to pay a $400,000 civil penalty, relinquish operational control to the DEP, retain liability insurance and sell the land and give the money to the DEP once the tires were finally removed.